Gosport’s Queens Hotel cooling unit dispute
Simon Bull, business owner at the Queen's Hotel in Gosport, where a condensing cooling unit situated outside the front of the pub which is essential in keeping the beer cool, has been turned down by planning after a neighbour has complained about the noise.
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00:00I'm Simon Bull, one of the owners of the 4L Taproom and we're inside the Queen's Hotel on Queen's Road in Gosport.
00:06It's a locally listed building built in 1896 and it's been operating as a pub ever since then.
00:11Award-winning pub, earlier this year we won the award for the best independent hospitality and small tourism business
00:18and it's been in the camera good beer guide for 40 years.
00:23Last year we put in a new cooling system for the cellar to make sure that the beer is kept in perfect quality
00:29and that involved us putting an outside heat exchange.
00:32One of the neighbours wasn't happy with the heat exchange and the noise it made so made a complaint to the council
00:36which led to us having to apply for a planning permission for it.
00:39That was in July last year, here we are now in September so it's been a long time, a lot of work.
00:45A lot of sleepless nights, a lot of agro while we go through the process which isn't easy.
00:49Back and forth with the council as to what we can and can't do.
00:52On Wednesday last week they decided that we couldn't keep the unit.
00:56Not quite sure how they came up with that decision when a pub has to have a cold cellar
01:00and if you buy a house next to a pub you're going to have pub noises
01:03but for whatever reason the members on the committee decided that
01:06buying a house next to a pub means that you don't have to have pub noises
01:09and we're in a situation now where we don't quite know where it leaves us
01:12because without a cold cellar we can't sell beer, we can't sell beer, we can't run a pub.
01:15So hopefully the council will come up with a solution for us as to what we can do moving forward.
01:19How's this made you feel?
01:21Disappointed. Disappointed with the council, disappointed with the support we've had from them
01:26particularly with the engagement with the enforcement officers.
01:29They have said they have been working with us to come up with a solution.
01:33All they've been doing is telling us what we can't do rather than what the solution could be
01:37and every time we've said what else can we do they've just said whatever it is you need to apply for plantation for it
01:41without actually telling us what we can do.
01:43It's cost a lot of money.
01:45We're running a pub and as I'm sure you appreciate pubs are closing in Gosport all over the place.
01:49We had four pubs on Stoke Road three years ago, we've got one.
01:54So we can't afford to lose any more pubs and we certainly can't afford to lose businesses that are successful in Gosport
01:59and that bring people to Gosport that are in the Good Beer Guide and are winning awards.
02:03So yeah, it's disappointing that we're in a situation that we don't know what we do next.
02:07It's disappointing that it's cost us a lot of money that we shouldn't have to be spending on something like this.
02:12We should be spending our money on making the pub run rather than having to pay for things that seem unnecessary.
02:17So yeah, it's given us sleepless nights, it's made me feel very disappointed
02:20and it's been pulling my hair out over it at some stages.
02:24What would you like to see the result?
02:26I'd like to see common sense prevail and the unit stay where it is and let's just carry on running the pub.
02:31There is nowhere else for it to go, that's the problem.
02:34There is nowhere else on the building.
02:36We don't own the building, we can't put it on the rear of the building, we can't put it on the roof.
02:40It has to be outside for airflow.
02:42So we just need some common sense to prevail and someone to say,
02:45okay, let's have a look at what we can do to make it work.